Attention: Pro-Israel & Pro-Palestinian Advocates

I am an Israeli citizen. I live in Israel. I am raising my children here.

I also believe in Palestinian rights. I am critical of the Israeli government. I want a future that is better for all the residents of the region -Palestinian and Israeli.

I think that getting to this better future will require deep work, changing the structures of culture, community, economics, and politics among both Palestinian and Israeli communities, working together and finding ways through what will sometimes be a painful path.

Because this change will require hard work, and because there is so much resistance to it in both Israeli and Palestinian society, I wish that there were an international pro-Palestinian movement that I could turn to for support. I also wish that there were an international pro-Israel movement that advocated for Palestinian rights, not just as a compliment to its pro-Israel advocacy, but out of a deep understanding that neither population is going anywhere, so we need to figure out how to live together. That means protecting Palestinian rights is in Israel’s interests.

Instead, we have an an international pro-Palestinian movement that is rife with anti-Semitism. If one looks at the statements of leaders from many pro-Palestinian organizations or events, or the chants at rallies that go uncontested, they often use anti-Semitic rhetoric. By anti-Semitic, I don’t mean “from the river to the sea” or accusing Israel of genocide. I mean rhetoric asking to erase the Zionists (i.e. the Jews) rather than the State of Israel; I mean speeches in support of Hamas and refusal to condemn attacks against Jewish (and non-Jewish) Israeli civilians because they had the misfortune of being born in the Jewish state; I mean sometimes threatening speech against Jews or Jewish institutions; I mean attempts to erase the fact that yes, there is a cultural and historic connection between the Jewish people and Israel, and there are Israelis with no dual citizenship and no other place to go to. How those facts translate into policy and whether they are necessary and sufficient for a Jewish State is up for debate; one need not be a Zionist in order to not be an anti-Semite. But when one erases a large part of Jewish culture in  the name of anti-Zionism, it veers into anti-Semitic territory.

Similarly, I wish I could turn to a pro-Israel community that supported me as a person living in Israel who cares about Palestinian lives and about Israel being a moral country and a healthy democracy. Instead, it feels like the pro-Israel community has slipped into promoting right-wing Israeli propaganda, without room for more nuanced voices that promote Israel’s security while also recognizing the Palestinians’ humanity. The liberal Zionist voice is becoming marginalized, as in the wake of October 7th and the ensuing war, people either shifted to the right, or to the left, abandoning Zionism completely. The problem is that the same thing is happening in Israel as well. This makes those of us who call on Israel to do better, not despite our love of our country, but because of it, increasingly bereft of allies.

At the end of the day, change can only come from within. This means international pro-Palestinian advocates should support both Israeli and Palestinian efforts on the ground to promote a more safe and peaceful future for Palestinian  children (and by extension, for Israeli children as well). Instead, Palestinian peace activists on the ground get condemned as collaborators and Israeli peace activists get boycotted.

Similarly, the pro-Israel movement should want a better future for Israel, which means less war and a stable democracy. That means that its advocacy efforts should include support of Israeli peace activists and of Palestinian peace activists and those who promote non-violent methods as the means to statehood and maximizing their rights. Instead, any voices about the Occupation or Palestinian rights are actively left out of the conversation.

As a mother who wants my children to have a safe and secure future here, I am sick of the extremists on both sides, miles away from the conflict, who think that any compromises that result in less conflict are bad because they are -well – compromises. It’s easy to talk extremism when you’re not the one paying the price. The children of Gaza deserve better. The children of Tel Aviv deserve better.

So if you’re an international advocate, on either side of the conflict, I’m asking you to do your part, to help make things a little bit better, for all of us.